posted February 10, 2006
What a sham and a shame. Coretta Scott King lies in her coffin in a church in Atlanta and the Democrats use the time to wage war on the President.
President Bush, former Presidents Clinton, Bush Sr. and Carter all attended the funeral at New Birth Missionary Baptist Church in Lithonia, Ga., to pay their respects to the widow of Martin Luther King Jr. And what does President Bush have to endure? He has to listen to people like “Rev.” Joseph Lowery spew political trash during a woman’s funeral. Does he eulogize the deceased? No, he talks about weapons of mass destruction, the color of the skin of New Orleans’ hurricane victims, and the plight of the poor.
What a hypocrite. What do the poor get from “Rev.” Lowery? Well, he may not have much money to give them because he spends his on tailored suits and nice jewelry. How dare he blast the President on the plight of the poor when around him sit the black community’s hypocrites. The pastor of New Birth Missionary Baptist Church, a predominately black congregation, sent his private plane to pick up the King family members and transport them to Atlanta. I don’t know about you, but my pastor does not have a private plane. So this hypocrite blasts the President at a funeral about the plight of the poor while his own pay hundreds of thousands if not millions of dollars to have private aircraft for their “Christian” ministries and he pays hundreds or thousands of dollars to buy tailored suits and jewelry.
Maybe if the “Rev.” Lowery would buy suits off the rack and get his fellow “ministers” to sell their private planes then maybe the poor could use some of that money and they would not have to rely on the government. They are not doing too badly for themselves, but again it is the poor who give to their “ministries.” So the next time you criticize Republicans or anyone for not helping the poor and use Jesus as your proof just remember that Jesus did not own a private plane. He walked during this ministry and did not buy expensive clothes.
Funerals are about remembering the deceased, not about petty politics. But I guess when the nation is tuning you out you had better take every opportunity when the cameras are rolling. Mrs. King, we apologize for this disgraceful behavior. You deserved better.
Johnny Franks
seechatt@yahoo.com
* * *
This is one of the very few times I agree with you on the Mrs. King issue with exceptions. You are correct, these black ministers with mega churches and wearing thousands dollars suits driving around in Jacquars and flashing their gold jewelry while their parishoners go hungry and without some of the basics would both sadden and disgust Dr. King and Mrs. Coretta Scott King.
On the other hand, your complaint, it would appear, is self-serving and selfish and being used to promote your own agenda at the expense of this fine lady, Mrs. King. The truth is, many of you who sing the high praises and pretend outrage over comments made at Mrs. King's funeral despised both Dr. and Mrs. King in their days of the Civil Rights Movement and thereafter.
Dr. King was referred to as a rabblerouser and troubleamaker by even some Southern black ministers who were afraid of upsetting white Southerners. And some white Southerners just wanted them all to disappear. So please, save the "I'm outraged rhetoric" for another day.
Dee Hurston
dhhurston@netscape.net
* * *
I agree that her funeral was not the proper place to spout politics. I agree Mrs. King deserves better.
However, our nation and Americans deserve better than George Bush.
Vicki Hill
Hixson
bouvierh@comcast.net
* * *
Mr. Franks' disingenuous indignation over the Coretta Scott King's funeral is indicative of the true believers of Bush. While civil liberties, black Americans, the poor, vets and elderly lose ground under this regime, the Bushivecs feign sympathy for true and honest leaders in America, like Mrs. King, while supporting the slashing of social programs.
Many who spoke, like Rev. Lowry, actually knew Coretta Scott King, knew her spirit, and honored her spirit with blunt honesty. Iraq was a horrific, deadly deception and New Orleans drowned while Bush played guitar, its rebuilding no longer a priority. The bubble boy Bush was let out of his safe zone for the first time in years. Bush has only played to audiences of Franks and other sworn faithful, as opposing voices are locked behind fences in "free speech zones." This was a rare opportunity for the concerns of the disenfranchised, and those who take exception to his imperial presidency, to be heard with all protective filters taken off. As was the tradition of Coretta King and others of true conviction and concern for fellow humans, Rev. Lowry, Carter, and others spoke for the truth and the people, and honored Mrs. King by doing so. The standing ovations given Rev. Lowry, Carter, Mayor Franklin and the Clintons, underscores that they indeed spoke for the people, as Mrs. King had done through her life.
In typical Bush Believer fashion, Franks does the smear campaign on those he despises, and calls poverty, an illegal war, and the New Orleans devastation, "petty politics." The smirking, smearing right is afraid to address the issues addressed that adversely affect millions at home and abroad, falling back to the bully position when their sacred "see no evil and hear no evil, acknowledge no evil" bubble is burst. Mr. Bush's body language revealed his extreme discomfort at being exposed to real Americans' real concerns. It is doubtful that he will be let out of his protective package again anytime soon. "If the citizenry would recognize that Bush's egomania is acting out a national illness," says psychiatrist Carol S. Wolman, "we would all be saner."
Paul Levy in his article on "The Madness of King George" noted, "George W. Bush is ill. He has a psycho-spiritual disease of the soul, a sickness that is endemic to our culture and symptomatic of the times we live in.".."People who support Bush are actually complicit with and enabling Bush's madness in a co-dependent, self-reinforcing feedback loop that is 'closed,' which is to say it is insular and not open to any feedback from the 'real' world..The situation is very analogous to when seemingly good, normal, loving Germans supported Hitler, believing he was a good leader trying to help them. The German people didn't realize that the virulent pathogen malignant egophrenia had taken possession of Hitler and was incarnating itself through him. By not seeing this and supporting Hitler, they became agents used by this non-local, deadly disease to propagate itself. This was a collective psychosis, and this is what is taking place in our country right now."
The Rev. and Mrs. King were pioneers in combating our national illness of the soul. Their tradition of afflicting the comfortable and exposing injustice and lies was carried forth in honor of Coretta Scott King's truly amazing life and works. The smears and attacks of those in attendance who honored Mrs. King shows that much remains to be done to bring honesty and honor to America.
Dennis Haldeman
dennyh@bellsouth.net
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Having recently re-read The Autobiography of Martin Luther King Jr., I cannot disagree more with your editorial comments. Dr. King stood for justice, equal rights and integrity and he spoke against the poverty that still exists in this rich nation. Bush stands for the status quo, as evidenced by his lack of action in the Katrina disaster and deserved every word Rev. Lowery uttered.
To quote Dr. King speaking out against the Vietnam War in 1966:
"There is a very obvious and almost facile connection between the war in Vietnam and the struggle I and others have been waging in America. A few years ago there was a shining moment in that struggle. It seemed as if there was a real promise of hope for the poor - both black and white -through the poverty program. There were experiments, hope and new beginnings. Then came the buildup in Vietnam, and I watched this program broken and eviscerated as if it were some idle political plaything of a society gone mad on war. And I knew that America would never invest the necessary funds or energies in rehabilitation of its poor so long as adventures like Vietnam continued to draw men and skills and money like some demonic, destructive suction tube. So I was increasingly compelled to see the war as an enemy of the poor and to attack it as such. If America's soul becomes totally poisoned, part of the autopsy must read Vietnam."
If Dr. King were alive today, he could give the same speech and only substitute Iraq for Vietnam. America hasn't learned a thing in 40 years. President Bush lied about WMDs and he started this voluntary war. Finally he had to appear before an audience where he faced criticism, where he could not control the attendees, and somebody called him to task for his actions.
I am sure Dr. King and Coretta were applauding Rev. Lowery from heaven.
Mitchell Beene
Chattanooga
mbinsures@comcast.net
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